Atomistic Approach to Alloy Scattering in Si(1-x)Ge(x)

Date of this Version

4-26-2011

Citation

Applied Physics Letters 98, 173503 (2011)

Abstract

SiGe alloy scattering is of significant importance with the introduction of strained layers and SiGe channels into complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology. However, alloy scattering has till now been treated in an empirical fashion with a fitting parameter. We present a theoretical model within the atomistic tight-binding representation for treating alloy scattering in SiGe. This approach puts the scattering model on a solid atomistic footing with physical insights. The approach is shown to inherently capture the bulk alloy scattering potential parameters for both n-type and p-typecarriers and matches experimental mobility data.